Theme Parks in 2007

14Jan07

Well, we’re about two weeks into 2007 now, and so far, it looks like this year might be a pretty quiet year for most of the Orlando-area theme parks.  As most would know by now, I base most of my theme park related content around the Orlando-area parks, since they’re so close by and I’m at all of them quite a bit…I’m even planning to go to Sea World sometime this week.  That’s how much I like them.

But, this year, I think it’s going to be a relatively quiet year.  At Disney World, we’re getting the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom, as well as the grand openings of both the Nemo’s Undersea Adventure and Finding Nemo: The Musical (note: a review of Finding Nemo: The Musical is coming sometime this week…), and maybe a couple other things to keep the celebration going for the Year of A Million Dreams in all of Disney’s parks.  I want more–Disney has gotten so good at creating amazing attractions that are getting really good reviews from me, that I want to see more coming from them…there’s talk that a brand new version of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth will be coming this year, but there’s nothing official on that. 

But, even quieter is going to be at Universal Orlando…or, will it be so quiet?  The one big thing that they have coming this year is the new Blue Man Group show, which is opening in the old Nickelodeon Studios facility on June 7th.  Aside from that, we should be expecting the new ride where Back to the Future is currently located–but the ride hasn’t even closed yet, several months after it was supposed to.  As of now, the Blue Man Group is the only thing that’s coming to the resort this year, and it kind of sucks–I want to see a lot more from Universal, too.  I’m kind of disappointed.

At Sea World, we’re going to see the addition of two or three new small rides to the recently-reopened Shamu’s Happy Harbor.  There’s been talk of a river rapids ride for quite some time now, but, nothing’s official, and even if it were, it wouldn’t open until 2008 anyway, at this point.  Hopefully Sea World will continue to deliver on what they already have and pave the way for some good new attractions sometime in the very near future…the park needs it.

And finally, Busch Gardens…well, Sheikra is going floorless, hopefully sometime this year.  That, to me, is going to be amazing, seeing as how the new Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg is set to open this Spring.  That new ride is essentially the same as Sheikra, except it is floorless from the start.  I’m thinking that Busch is going to wait and see how Griffon fares as a floorless coaster before going ahead and closing Sheikra for its rehab.  I personally think they should wait until the new Python replacement opens before they do any such work–there’s too much construction in the park as it is, with the new Sesame Street area going up, and also the new Python replacement, among other small projects– it seems that Busch is putting the most work into Busch Gardens this year, which could make it the Park of the Year, if they play their cards right. 

Like I said, it’s going to be a very, very quiet year, in my opinion.  Hopefully the parks will start announcing some other new venues that will be opening in 2007, otherwise, I have to say that this is going to be a very bad year.

Filed under: Busch Gardens Tampa, Sea World, Theme Parks, Universal Orlando, Walt Disney World   |  Leave a Comment